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Rasputen, funny you should mention that. I was raised in the county next to the one I was hiking in. That county has been nicknamed "keg county" for more years than I have been around. As a kid in the woods in late 50's early 60's, I remember coming up on 3 different stills. My dad actually had one busted up by the law and I remember him coming in all cut and scratched up from running through the woods to get away. Just this past Sunday in the paper there was an article about bootlegging making a comeback because of a new law requiring an ID to buy it and the illegals not having ID's. Anyway no corn squezzins this past Friday, just a good day wandering around the woods and countryside. tnhillbilly ps: I even put shoes on to go to the woods

'Life is not the way it's supposed to be. It's the
way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes
the difference.' Edna Ellison

I'm training in the rain, just trainin in the rain!

Well, TNHillBilly's day hike report may be jealous. So out I went today. Even though the forecast was for heavy rain, I made myself go. I usually only go on local hikes when the weather is perfect. But I need to go out more when the weather is crappy. For training purposes. Plus, it's just different out in the woods during the rain. But I prefer hiking in the woods in the snow, but we don't get much of that here, that's for sure!

So even though the forecast had been for rain all day long, by the time I got to the trailhead there had not yet been any sign of rain. Just dark gloomy skies. As usual, I had the place to myself -- normal during the week. I was just getting my pack on at about 1:30 p.m. when a truck showed up with a couple of ATV/dirtbike folks. That irritated me no end. Not that I had anything against that, it's just that if I had been there a couple of hours earlier I would have had the place all to myself. And I wouldn't have had to listen to the roaring of the engines off in the distance. Anyway, down the trail I went! (If you can actually call it a trail).

It was just a great hike. Up and down hills with 100 foot elevation gains and losses, over and over, for couple of miles. There's not any kind of maintained trails out here. I'm often just going off trail, deep in the woods and testing my compass and/or GPS skills, or lack thereof. Didn't see any other people nor any wildlife on the way in. I did occasionally hear the dirtbike/ATV engines way off in the distance. But after a couple of miles of hiking up and down those hills, naturally these old bones needed a break. And you know what that means!

There still hadn't been any rain, so I spotted a couple of trees that looked about right, I pulled out my Speer hammock and hung it up. And as usual, in a spot that would be virtually impossible to place a tent. In fact, this is an advantage about hammocks that is confirmed to me over and over. Other than comfort, it is the number one advantage. In the places where I hike, it is really rare to see a spot that would be acceptable for tents, especially more than one tent. The only way there would be is if somebody came in with some machinery and established a camp site, or at least with a lot of pick and shovel work. It's mostly jungle like, with lots of steep hills and very few flat places, with roots everywhere, and swampy areas in the low parts. But I can always find a place to rest or set up camp, even with about every fourth tree being contaminated with poison ivy. I can still always manage to find a couple of trees to do the job, though they might not be in the exact spot where I want them.

Now, I bet you guys can guess exactly what happened then, as soon as I hung the hammock? Yep, you guessed it. The rain started pouring just about the time I tied off the webbing! Fortunately, my tarp was tied to the top of my pack in its snake skins, so I was able to hang it up within a minute or two, at least enough to get the hammock covered while I staked down the sides or tied them to shrubs or logs. My hammock had quite a few wet spots in it, but no big deal. I just rolled out my RidgeRest in the SPE, took my boots off and kicked back. Man it was delightful. All I had on was my longsleeved cotton shirt and blue jeans, and a rain jacket, but I was quickly pleasantly warm on my back, which made things adequate on top. I just laid there under the tarp, listening to the rain come down, and looking out from under the tarp across the ridges and valleys, trying to spot some wildlife. But all was silent and calm, just the sound of the rain on the tarp. Not even a sound of distant engines, I guess the rain made them go in.

As usual, I had a great desire to just go to to sleep and stay the night. But after about an hour I decided I better get up and start hiking out if I wanted to be home for supper with my wife. And I don't want to miss that! The rain was still pouring down. So I got out of the hammock, rolled up the pad, took down the hammock, dug my rain pants out of the pack and put them on (my jacket was already on). I also noted that my hammock was already dry. I tightened everything down on the pack, covered it up with the rain cover, then proceeded to slip the tarp back into the snake skins and take it down. Other than trying to get my rain pants on after I had already taken the hammock down (that would have been much easier to do while sitting in the hammock -- duh! ) I had everything taken down in just a few minutes. So the pack goes back on, and I start hiking out. On the hike out, I saw three magnificent whitetails, waving that white flag (their whitetails) at me as they ran away. I also heard a hoot owl going crazy not very far from me, actually about where the whitetails ran off to. Unless it was poachers in the park doing some kind of hoot owl call? Or maybe not poachers, but somebody just practicing with the call? I don't know if that's something that would be used in deer hunting. Or perhaps turkey hunting? Because I think turkey season is about to open here. Or who knows, maybe it was an actual real owl. I just heard it that one time.

So that was it, a nice afternoon of hiking topped off with some lazy hammocking under the tarp, listening to the rain. I'm glad I've got a place close by where I can do this. At least during the winter, and somewhat in the fall and/or early spring. When I don't have to worry about snakes, or ticks or mosquitoes. I really don't go out there much during the summer.